Mid-February is my first annual time for checking out the “State of the Lake” so to speak. What I mean by this is that in years past, it always seemed to be mid-February was the first time that the weather provided sufficient warmth for me to want to hop out on the lake to see how things are progressing with respect to Filamentous Algae (FA).
In the years 2018, 2019, 2020, and to a slightly lesser degree in 2021, my observations in mid-February included the forming of “large bright lime green” spheres (about 2-3 feet in diameter) throughout the lake’s water column (below the surface). Charlie Mesing would explain that this was unfortunately the signs of new FA growth. We then were destined to see this vibrant bright green algae decay, turn brown, and float to the surface of the lake in the hot summer. This then promoted the need to chemically treat the FA to try to get it to “de-gas” and sink rather than float on the surface. We also continued our education of the lake residents to allow some shoreline plant growth and minimize lawn fertilization, if possible, to help reduce the nutrient intrusion that was feeding the FA.
Last year, for the first time I’ve seen (and I’ve lived here over 15 years), we had a healthy positive growth of native “lake grass” (Southern Naiade). This is beneficial in that it absorbs nutrients that would otherwise feed the more invasive FA.
It’s still early in 2022, so I say the following with a “grain of salt” mindset. I am encouraged that as of March 1st, the presence of the “large bright lime green” spheres is significantly down. There are still some, just far less than I saw 3 years ago.
Please do not misunderstand my optimism — I fully expect we will still see floating decaying FA this summer. My hopes are that the amount will be much less than we saw 3 years ago, and hopefully more manageable.
Charlie Mesing with the KLHOA has already amended his treatment plan for 2022 to account for the above activity.
- A fresh crop of Carp have been added to the lake in January. These younger Carp are eager feeders on Southern Naiade (SN) lake grass (they don’t care much for the FA). The amount of Carp was limited to a number that is designed to limit SN spread to keep it below a nuisance level (essentially keep it below the surface), but still allow enough to retard nutrient levels available to the FA.
- Chemical treatments are planned for the warmer months. The change this year is that Charlie will focus on treating the residential “views/shores” in an attempt to reduce the nuisance element of the FA.
Please feel free to provide constructive feedback to me regarding your observations this year (schmidtfjs@gmail.com). Charlie surveys the lake at least once every few weeks (as well as all the other lakes), but many eyes help catch things early.
I frequently have to remind myself that treatment plans (Carp, chemicals, shore planting, reduced lawn fertilization, etc) are LONG term impact changes, frequently taking weeks, months, and in some cases years to make a noticeable difference. My opinion remains that we have seen dramatic improvement over what we experienced in the 2015-2017 era. There’s still more progress to be made.
Have a great Spring!
Fred Schmidt